Karma Mimansa

SR No.: 011104
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith
Publication Year: 1921
Total Pages: 121
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

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THE KARMA-MIMAMSA
emphasises the disability of women arising from their ignorance of the Veda, which is not asserted by Jaimini, who doubtless reflects the older usage. Sūdras are excluded (VI, 1,26,33) from sacrificing for this very reason of ignorance of the Veda, and in the later texts the admission of women even to a qualified share of the sacrifice is thus anomalous. Some sınall amount of means is also requisite in a sacrificer, and he must not be incapacitated by disease. Further details are given in the Srauta Sutras, which recognise, like Jaimini, the case of certain classes who can take some part in sacrifice though not of the three higher classes, such as the Rathakāra. In the case of Sattras only Brahmans of the Viśvāmitra family studying the same Kalpa Sūtra are qualified to act; all act as sacrificers, and each individually obtains the whole benefit of the sacrifice, instead of it being shared collectively. Moreover, while the death of an ordinary sacrificer destroys the rite, in the case of a Sattra the place of any one incapacitated can be taken by another priest, who, howerer, obtains no share of the result. Only Brahmans again can eat the remnants of sacrifice, so that, if a Ksatriya has a Soma sacrifice performed for him, he must be given to drink a substitute for Soma remnants On the other hand, the threefold duty of sacrifice to the gods, of Vedic study as payment of debts to the Rşis, and of the begetting of children as a debt to the Fathers, is incumbent on all these classes, not merely on those who may wish to attain the benefits of these actions (VI, 2, 31). Again he only may perform the Visvajit (VI, 7) who can afford a fee of 1,200 gold pieces, but, when he is bidden to give up all in it, that applies only to his riches, not to, e.g. his parents, and of his riches there are excluded lands, horses, and slaves in personal attendance, while the 1,000 years of performance is interpreted as so many days.
In addition to these divisions according to content injunctions can be classified on the basis of the knowledge already possessed by the agent of the mode of performance or actions possible. Thus an original injunction (apūrva
1 Kumārila on Mināmsä Satra, I, 2,42; Arthasarizgraha, pp. 17, 18, Mināmsāparibhasā, pp. 10-12, 41.